Karl Blossfeldt

Blossfeldt's fantastic photos of plant forms were originally intended to be reference material for his work as a sculptor. Though originating in Germany in 1928, during a time dominated by soft-focus pictorial work, these detailed and greatly enlarged images show a stark abstract aesthetic which helped to influence modern German photography. The similarities between the forms in nature and those in artistic styles from Gothic to Art Nouveau spawned discussions on the parallels between nature and art. This edition is the unabridged and slightly altered republication of the 1928 Urformen der Kunst.